CN Editor Joe Lauria addressed a meeting held on the eve of an appeal hearing for Australian whistleblower David McBride, highlighting the growing repression in contrast to 50 years ago.
On the night before the appeal hearing of Australian whistleblower David McBride on March 3, Consortium News Editor Joe Lauria addressed a gathering in Canberra, the Australian capital. Below are his remarks as prepared and as delivered.
As Prepared
If David McBride’s were an isolated case, it would be an outrage.
But this case has taken on ramifications beyond the borders of Australia.It is part of a broader pattern of growing repression by the governments of the Five Eyes Nations.
McBride’s is an international case. As important in the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand as it is here.
Whistleblowers of course have been punished before. Probably the most famous case was that of Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the classified Pentagon Papers to the NYT to try to stop the Vietnam War, exposing official American lies that the war was being won.
First Ellsberg gave the Papers to Sen. Mike Gravel to read into the Congressional Record, America’s Hansard. Both Ellsberg and Gravel whom we lost in recent years were friends who sat on CN‘s board of directors.
To illustrate how much more repressive our 5 Eyes governments are today than 50 years ago in the Pentagon Papers case, and to put David McBride’s imprisonment in context, consider the case of Julian Assange.
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